Interview with Lydia Grey, one of The Silver Ladies of London
My name is Lesley Eames and I write 1920s-set historical romances. The first of these, The Silver Ladies of London was shortlisted in the 2019 UK Romantic Novel Awards run by the Romantic Novelists’ Association together with Goldsboro Books.
I’m delighted to be introducing Women Writers to one of those Silver Ladies, Lydia Grey, who is twenty-two when the story begins in 1923.
Q: You’re in domestic service at Arleigh Court in Northamptonshire at the beginning of the novel. Is domesticity an area in which you believe you excel?
A: Not at all. Dusting, sweeping… What’s the point when there’ll be more dust and dirt by morning?
Q: You have something of a history of finding it hard to settle into work, I understand?
A: You’ve heard about the flying macaroons in the bakery. I was provoked.
Q: Do you find a lot of people provoking?
A: If it’s a sweet nature you’re looking for, you should speak to my friend, Ruth.
Q: Is there nothing good about the job at Arleigh Court?
A: Actually, there is. Mrs Arleigh – the mistress and vile witch of a woman – has a car and a chauffeur who’s keen to earn a bit of money on the side. I pay him to teach me to drive and learn about car maintenance.
Q: You’re interested in cars?
A: Cars are the best things in the world. Especially fast cars.
Q: So why haven’t you tried to find work with motors instead of going into domestic service?
A: I have! Haven’t you heard? Cars are men’s work – according to men. I’d love to have been born a man. Just think about it. No one thinking I’m odd because I like to wear overalls, stick my fingers into engine oil and bury my nose in The Motor Manual, the best book ever…
Q: You don’t like reading ‘women’s interest’ books and magazines? Vogue, for example?
A: If it’s fashion that interests you, speak to my friend, Jenny. She can trim a hat or run up a dress from rags and manage to make them look stunning. Mind you, she’s like a golden princess, is Jenny.
Q: Back to your employment situation. Am I right in thinking you’re fired from your job at Arleigh Court?
A: That isn’t my fault. I mean, it really isn’t my fault. My friends aren’t to blame either. Ruth, Jenny, Grace and me – we’re all dismissed unfairly.
Q: Do you fight the dismissal?
A: Fight it? How? Mrs Arleigh is the boss. If she says we have to leave then we have to leave and I have to settle for telling her what a vicious old witch she is.
Q: What do you do then?
A: We can’t get work locally on account of the scandal, but it works out for the best because we come to London.
Q: Does it upset you to leave your family behind?
A: What family?
Q: Ah, yes. Your mother abandoned you years ago, didn’t she?
A: She was no loss to me.
Q: Really?
A: Good riddance. I’m better off without her.
Q: Hmm. At least you had your father to look after you.
A: Look after me? What a joke. He’s always been too busy reading Karl Marx to notice my existence.
Q: You don’t approve of Karl Marx?
A: I don’t approve of Frank – that’s my father – reading books instead of doing anything useful to change the world. He should try being more like Grace. She doesn’t just complain about the state of things. She gets things done.
Q: Like setting up in business in London?
A: Exactly. Grace is clever. She should be running the country but women aren’t even allowed to vote until they’re thirty and only then if they own property. How ridiculous is that? Still, the country’s loss is our gain because she sets up Silver Ladies.
Q: Isn’t it hard being lady chauffeurs in a world run by men?
A: Of course it’s hard, despite women doing an amazing job of driving ambulances and trucks in the war. Maintaining them too. Some men think we should leave driving to them now they’re back from the war. They think we should flick dusters instead. Idiots. If duster-flicking is so satisfying, why don’t they want to do it?
Q: You’ve no thoughts of marriage?
A: I’m not a slipper-fetching sort of girl.
Q: But don’t you meet a man? An American man?
A: I suppose you mean Harry Dellamore.
Q: Rather dashing, I hear.
A: Rather annoying, actually. But at least he likes cars. Fast cars. He drives a Groves Peregrine and has shares in Fairfax Park, a racing track.
Q: Will he let you race?
A: I live in hope. Hey, is that my copy of The Motor Manual you’re sitting on? I’ll have it back, thank you. Look, no offence but I’ve got spark plugs to fit. Why don’t you go and talk to Grace? She’ll make you a cup of tea and tell you all about Silver Ladies. She’ll tell you about Thea, Anna and Daisy who feature in Lesley’s second book too. It’s something about a guest house in Brighton. Who on earth wants to run a guest house when there are cars in the world? People are strange.
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Lesley has been a lawyer, event organiser and Marketing and Fundraising Development Manager for a charity but is now focussing her time on writing, editing and mentoring other writers. Her published writing includes almost 100 short stories and two novels with more novels in the pipeline. Competition successes include winning the Festival of Romance’s New Talent Award and the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Elizabeth Goudge Cup. Her first novel was shortlisted in the UK Romantic Novel Awards. Lesley lives in Hertfordshire, adores her daughters and drinks a lot of tea.
Follow her on Twitter @LesleyEames
Find out more about her on her website http://lesleyeames.com/
THE SILVER LADIES OF LONDON
1920’s London. Featuring four attractive heroines, a scandal, a secret and a silver Rolls Royce. Dismissed without references when their employer’s valuable necklace goes missing, friends Ruth, Lydia, Jenny and Grace try to rebuild their lives far from home in London.
A surprise financial inheritance and gift of a beautiful silver Rolls Royce leads them to set up in business as female chauffeurs and the Silver Ladies XX is born. But driving is a man’s world and the girls face a future fraught with constant challenges.
Soon their business, romances and even their friendship come under threat. Can the Silver Ladies overcome their struggles and find love, success and happiness?
Category: Contemporary Women Writers, Interviews, On Writing
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